Certain consumer products, such as baby wipes and pre-moistened cleaning cloths, lose moisture and effectiveness if exposed to the air. A number of resealable, disposable product packages have been developed to hold such products. These packages include dispensers that attempt to provide access to the product when opened while sealing the package from the outside environment when closed. Such dispensers include resealable features, which may take the form of, for example, an adhesive label, a bag lip, or a door-and-hinge arrangement.
Some of such dispensers employ a resealable adhesive label. The resealable adhesive label seals the consumer product packaging access point to the consumer product when closed. Upon opening the adhesive label, access to the product is enabled through the consumer product access point. After product use, the adhesive label is resealed, resealing the consumer packaging, until the product needed again.
Although such resealable adhesive labels are simple to produce and are easily used by consumers, these adhesive labels suffer some substantial drawbacks. First, most resealable labels employ resealable adhesives that are by nature weak: after repeated uses of the adhesive label, the resealable adhesive loses bonding power and no longer effectively seals the consumer package. Second, the resealable adhesive can prematurely lose bonding power if the adhesive becomes dirty, or if the adhesive comes in contact with moisture. Frequent resealing, dirt, and moisture are each common in a consumer environment, and as such, early failure of a resealable adhesive label can result in spoilage of a product long before either the product is used or the expected product lifetime has expired.
A second type of dispenser employs a product packaging (typically in the form of a bag) with a locking seam flange along the opening in the packaging, in a manner similar to those found in Ziploc® bags and similar consumer storage bags. Namely, to access product, the locking seam flange is pulled apart, and the locking seam flange is resealed after product use. However, a locking seam flange has its own drawbacks. First, it is sometimes difficult to tell whether the locking seam flange has been sealed along the entirety of the opening in the product packaging—and if the seal is not complete, the product may expire, dry out, or lose its effectiveness before the product is used or before the expected product lifetime has expired. Furthermore, the opening and closing of a locking seam flange along the entire open side of a consumer packaging requires the use of both hands and careful finger and pressure placement. Such dexterity may be inconvenient in some consumer applications, and use of a locking seam flange may be difficult or impossible for small children, those with disabilities, or those with arthritic conditions.
A third type of dispenser employs a hard plastic product packaging with a hard plastic flip-top lid. In such packaging, a hard plastic cover is simply coupled to the packaging via a hinge and locking mechanism or locking tab. Unlocking and opening the cover provides access to the product, and closing and relocking the cover protects the product from the outside environment. However, hard plastic product packaging is typically more expensive to produce and may have certain environmental disposal concerns. Furthermore, hard plastic packaging may not be spatially efficient, requiring a large volume to hold a relatively small amount of consumer product. Finally, protection of the consumer product is solely reliant on the effectiveness of the seal of the hard top cover and the hard packaging. Prior to consumer use, such hard plastic packaging is typically shrink-wrapped to ensure that the product does not expire, dry out, or lose its effectiveness before the product is used or before the expected product lifetime has run its course. Such a shrink-wrap effectively requires two layers of product packaging and further adds to the costs of such hard plastic product packaging.